Intervention is necessary to develop the educational attainment of Black-Caribbean UK students

BY SELINA ROSELYN

The educational attainment of British Caribbean youths has been a subject of discussion for many decades. In 1997, David Gilborn (University of London) examined the academic performance of Britain’s minority populations, which simultaneously demonstrated the differences in educational outcomes, while exploring the social factors that influence academic performance.

Gilborn’s article illustrated research, which suggested a correlation between socio-economic status and achievement, while indicating that Black students of Caribbean heritage achieved exam scores that were below the level attained by other groups. Nonetheless, the findings also encouraged a discussion of how teacher expectations and poor perceptions play a major role in academic performance.

Consequently, the question that often arises in such discussions is whether children of Caribbean heritage would be more likely to succeed in a social context that could evade some of the negative stereotypes that arise in relation to the Black-Caribbean community in the UK. Therefore, the debate does not impose concerns regarding cognitive ability, but is seemingly more concerned with the cultural and environmental factors that allow young people to flourish.

In October 2023, The House of Commons published an article looking at the GCSE and higher education outcomes for Black students in England, and this noted that Black African students generally have better GCSE outcomes than Black students of Caribbean descent. This therefore provokes the exploration of how cultural factors appear to have a more substantial impact than racial distinctions.

In spite of the long-standing concerns regarding educational attainment among Caribbean youths, it is evident that some progress has been identified in GCSE results.  For example, the University of Oxford noted that in 2004, only 24% of Black-Caribbean students achieved five, or more GCSE A*-C grades, which was nearly half the rate for white British students. In 2013, the difference between this level of attainment significantly reduced from 17.6 percentage points, to just 7.2 percentage points, proving that Caribbean students had made progress. It was clear that educational disparities were narrowing.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has further disrupted educational outcomes, causing academic challenges for children from various ethnic groups.

In the 2021 to 2022 academic school year, the data from Key Stage 4 performance illustrated that White British students scored an average of 47.7 out of 90, and Black students of Caribbean heritage scored an average of 41.7. Moreover, there is clearly still a distinction between these scores, but when considering the impact of COVID-19 among other factors, the attainment gap between Black-Caribbean and White-British is arguably not so substantial.

Moreover, a greater distinction can be seen between the scores of Chinese students who achieved the highest among all groups, with an average score of 66.1.  Students from Indian backgrounds scored an average of 61.3 and students from African backgrounds achieved an average of 50.9.

Furthermore, the educational achievements of Chinese students in England, reflects an attainment level which is comparable to the Chinese students in the United States, and therefore reinforces the question of how culture and socio-economic status impact academic success.

Although the data surrounding Black-Caribbean students in the UK continues to show a disparity in educational outcomes, the question is how are these disparities being addressed? In the 1970s, Pan-African Saturday schools emerged in support of Black students. Parents and community leaders from Caribbean and African backgrounds often volunteered their time to provide supplementary education, as a means of counteracting the barriers in mainstream schools.

Rapper, author and activist Akala attended a Pan-African Saturday school and has often stated that he benefited tremendously from the community-lead tradition. Unfortunately, in recent years, the accessibility of supplementary education has declined.

Perhaps the emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 would have been the perfect opportunity to re-establish and reinforce supplementary education in the UK, and with the availability of online teaching and video platforms, there is ample opportunity to create new avenues for learning and development.

While many Caribbean students still excel in education, the data suggests that intervention is necessary to develop the attainment of the collective. Therefore, returning to supplementary education is a measure that may significantly improve the academic outcomes of British-Caribbean youths.

Furthermore, by utilizing the online resources that are now available, this may help to produce desirable outcomes for young people both in and outside of the UK, while specifically creating opportunities to candidly address the challenges and barriers in education for Caribbean youths across the diaspora.